


Here We Go Again

by llaras



Category: Firefly RPF
Genre: M/M, Room Service
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-19 22:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2405603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llaras/pseuds/llaras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alan's bored. Nathan provides a little distraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here We Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [Pretty Lights 2006](http://prettylights.compromisingpositions.net/2006/stories.php). For prehistoricsea. Many, many thanks to the fabulous sparky77 and dirty_diana for the last-minute betas. Your help was invaluable and excellent. *a thousand kisses*

There was nothing on. Well, nothing good. Just infomercials, a sleazy Hollywood gossip show, and movies he'd already seen or had no interest in seeing. Except. Alan flipped back over to the one with the teenagers running from the masked psycho in the abandoned house.

Two minutes later he sighed and hit the off button on the remote. Alan stared at the blank screen of the television for a few seconds and almost turned it back on. Somehow the silence of the hotel room seemed louder than the screams he'd just cut short.

It was a little after two in the morning and he was bored and not at all tired, even though the plane ride had seemed to take forever. He'd finished his paperback right before they landed, so that wouldn't work as a distraction, and it was too late to call anyone.

He spent a good ten minutes tidying up the hotel room and making sure he had everything ready for the panel the next day. But he was still just as awake as before, maybe even more so. He scanned the room again and noticed his room service tray. That could go out in the hall.

Alan was settling the tray outside his door when he heard someone come out of the room across the way.

"What you got there?" a familiar voice asked.

Alan looked up into Nathan's smiling face. He gestured at the tray, "Just the remains of a late dinner." He smiled back.

Nathan gave him a questioning look.

"Um. Ice cream sundae and tater tots. I had an inexplicable need for junk."

Nathan laughed. "Sounds good. Inexplicably."

"When did you get in?" Alan asked, running a hand through his hair. He suddenly wished he hadn't already changed into the track pants and old t-shirt he always wore to bed. He felt shabby and a little unkempt.

"A little bit ago. I caught an earlier flight." Nathan jerked his thumb back at his closed door. "I'm all settled in, but I haven't adjusted to the time change yet. You going to bed?"

Alan looked at his watch and winced. "I should, but I can't seem to settle down." He noticed for the first time that Nathan was also wearing track pants and a t-shirt, but they didn't look like well-worn sleeping clothes, they looked new. "You?" he asked.

"Nah." Nathan jingled a ring of keys and gestured toward the elevators. "I'm headed down to the weight room."

"The weight room? At this time of night?" Alan hadn't even known that the hotel had one. He was normally pretty content with a varied room service menu, more than five television channels, and maybe a couple extra towels.

"I asked the desk clerk. Nicely." Nathan couldn't hide his satisfaction at bending the rules.

"And again, I ask, the weight room? At this hour?" He couldn't hide his pained expression.

Nathan's eyebrows went up and he answered with an amused smile, "I'm in training."

"Training for what?!" Alan couldn't help the added volume. He was not looking forward to moving back to Los Angeles. It seemed everyone was on some kind of training regimen or new diet.

Nathan stepped closer and leaned down conspiratorially, "Now, you didn't hear this from me, okay?"

Alan nodded and tried not to react to Nathan's proximity and heat. It was still difficult, after all these years.

Nathan gripped his shoulder and whispered in an amazed tone, "Mini-series."

"What!" Alan drew back a little. "What?"

"Joss is going to announce it at the brunch thing tomorrow. He wanted to wait until everyone was here."

Alan was speechless. Nathan was grinning.

"Hey, c'mon. Come with me to the weight room. I'll fill you in."

An hour and two bottles of water later found them both on the floor of the weight room. Nathan was doing sit-ups. Alan was watching Nathan doing sit-ups.

Nathan had split his time between his own workout and showing Alan which exercises benefited which muscle groups. It wasn't anything that Alan didn't know, but it was fun to watch Nathan get excited about his new-found knowledge. And it was nice to hang out again and chat about what everyone was up to and what they had to look forward to. But Alan had forgotten how touchy-feely Nathan could be. It was unnerving.

Between the casual touching and the mini-series, his head was spinning. He still couldn't get over the news. They'd all be together again. Alan didn't know what role he was going to have, but Joss had told Nathan that he had plans for everyone to be involved. It was mind-blowingly fantastic. He'd missed seeing everyone on a daily basis; fan conventions and the few and far between social gatherings just weren't enough. Especially when it came to certain touchy-feely individuals.

"You tired yet?" Nathan asked. He was sprawled out and sweaty, chest heaving, eyes closed. Alan, for at least the hundredth time that night, desperately tried to not let his mind go where it wanted. Nathan was distracting.

"Alan?" Nathan sat up and stared at him. "You okay?"

Alan gave him a wry smile. "Yeah, sorry. I must have spaced out. It's late."

The trip back to their floor seemed to take forever. Neither one of them spoke until they reached their doors.

"Well, see you at the thing tomorrow?" he asked as they both reached for their key cards.

Nathan was looking at him with a strange expression. "Got a minute? I want to show you something."

Alan nodded. "Sure."

It was chilly in Nathan's room. Alan gasped as the sweat on his arms and neck reacted with the air conditioning to form goose bumps. He gasped again when Nathan moved into his space, one hand on Alan's shoulder as the other stroked along his neck and jaw. He opened his mouth to say something, but to his dismay, nothing but a very unmanly burble came out.

Nathan was all determination, jaw clenched and steely-eyed. "Listen." he said as his eyes searched Alan's face. "I want things to be different this time. Okay?"

Alan wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Different, how?"

Nathan stepped back and grabbed Alan by the hand, pulling him along until they were sitting side by side on the end of the bed.

"Before, when we did the show, everything was so new and we didn't know what to expect." Nathan was staring at Alan's hand, still held tightly in his own. "And then we were cancelled and went our own ways." He let go of Alan's hand and stared at the wall, brow furrowed as if he was trying to figure out what to say.

Alan tried to speak up then, but Nathan stopped him.

"Wait. Just let me finish, okay? I've been thinking about this for a long time."

Alan nodded, but Nathan was still looking away. "Go ahead," he said.

"Even the movie wasn't the same, because we knew that it was just going to be for that short period. I have regrets, because even though I consider your friendship to be one of the best things to come out of all this..." He paused and turned back to face Alan.

And for the second time that night, Alan was blown away. Want and need were written all over Nathan's face.

"I think there is more. I want there to be more."

Alan couldn't put two words together right then if he tried. And didn't they say actions spoke louder than words?

It was a first kiss of many to come. And a good sign that they started laughing halfway through.

Alan didn't go back to his hotel room that night. Nathan was a great cure for boredom.


End file.
